COA member Bhaskar Ganguly writes to CJI to approve AIFF constitution prepared by his panel

Bhaskar Ganguly, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, has urged the apex court to approve the constitution formulated by the panel and ask the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to conduct elections under its aegis. In a letter written to Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, Ganguly, a decorated India international, informed that he and co-administrator S Y Quraishi have submitted the draft constitution of the AIFF in January 2020.

In a 2017 order, the SC had appointed a Committee of Administrators comprising former Chief Election Commissioner Quraishi and Ganguly to formulate the constitution of the AIFF in consonance with the National Sports Code. "...the same has been submitted by us in January 2020, but till date there is not much of movement in the case, resulting (to) AIFF unable to take any decision for election and their present president complete his tenure as per the terms," Ganguly wrote in the letter.

"...my prayer to the Hon'ble Court to take priority of this case and approve the new constitution and advise to implement to AIFF immediately and conduct the election as per the 'new constitution' so that development of football in India can continue." Ganguly said he was unable to hire any advocate as he was "working on this project without any financial support from anywhere (sports ministry/AIFF)." Meanwhile, the pending case is set to come up before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The SLP has been listed before a bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Surya Kant and P S Narasimha.